La Porte, Indiana is a small community about 70 miles southeast of Chicago and is the county seat of La Porte County. In 1993, this quaint town was rocked by the murder of local high school girl, Rayna Rison, 16.

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La Porte, Indiana is a small community
about 70 miles southeast of Chicago and is the county seat of La Porte County.
La Porte, which is French for “the door”, is a typical small Midwestern town
with mom-and-pop shops, tree-lined streets, and plenty of cafes and bars. It is
not the place where you would expect a horrible crime to occur, but that is
exactly what happened here in 1993.

Rayna Rison was born on May 6, 1976 to Ben
and Karen Rison in La Porte County, Indiana. In spring of 1993, she was a
sophomore at La Porte High School where she received good grades and played
three instruments in the school band. She worked three jobs and dreamed of
becoming a veterinarian. One of her jobs was working at the local animal
hospital where she cleaned kennels and walked dogs.

On Friday, March 26, 1993, Rayna, 16, was
scheduled to work at Pine Lake Animal Hospital from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Afterwards, her and a boy named Matt Elser were going on a date. The couple had
recently broken up and were going to get
back together.

Matt, who was also a sophomore at La Porte
High School, arrived at the animal hospital to pick Rayna up, but she was not
there. There were no lights on and the building appeared to be closed. Matt
drove by the animal hospital a couple of times, but never saw Rayna or her car.
He then drove to Rayna’s house where her father, Ben answered the door and said
she never returned home.

When Rayna was not home by 10:30 p.m., her parents and younger sister,
Wendy went to the police station to report her missing. However, they were told
they had to wait 24 hours before filing a missing persons report. Ben insisted
to police this was not like Rayna, but there was little police could do at that
moment. The next day, Rayna’s family began searching for her. Wendy called
people they knew to see if any of them had seen Rayna, including their oldest
sister, Lori, who had no idea where Rayna was. The family put up fliers around
town. Police made a public appeal for information leading to Rayna’s
whereabouts, and it generated a lead.

Several witnesses reported to police they
saw Rayna outside the animal hospital talking with two men in a sedan. She
appeared to be arguing with one of them and witnesses assumed it was a lover’s
quarrel. Police thought it was Matt and questioned him first. He told them his
story about not finding her at the animal hospital when he went to pick her up.
Matt was considered a straight-laced, parent-approved young man. Police had no
reason to doubt his story.

The next evening, Rayna’s car was found
with the hood up on County Road 200 East, nine miles from the animal hospital.
Police arrived and thought she may have had car trouble. The keys were still in
the ignition, so an officer turned the car on, but it started without trouble.
Police believed the car was staged to look like a breakdown. They also noticed
Rayna’s purse and a man’s ring in the car.

Detectives wanted to know who the ring
belonged to and asked Matt if it was his. He told them no and that it belonged
to Jason Tibbs, Rayna’s ex-boyfriend. Jason and Rayna dated each other in the seventh
grade. The relationship lasted six months before the two broke up. Soon after,
Rayna began dating Matt. The detectives tracked Jason down, and he admitted the
ring was his. He claimed he was doing some work on her car, took the ring off,
and placed it in the car and then forgot about it.

Detectives asked Jason what he was doing
the night Rayna disappeared. He said he and some friends were “fox hunting’ – a
game of hide and seek using cars. The people “hiding” would give clues to their
location over the CB radio, and the seeker had to find them based on those
clues. Police spoke with the friends and while they confirmed they were playing
the game, no one actually saw Jason..

Not long after, America’s Most Wanted aired
a segment on Rayna, and police received an important tip that led them to Fail
Road. There, detectives found a Letterman jacket about seven miles from where
Rayna’s car was found. The jacket belonged to Matt, who had given it to Rayna.

On April 26, 1993, a man was fishing with
his teenage daughter at a local pond just off Range Road, north of US 20 in La
Porte County. She became bored and decided to explore the area around the pond.
That’s when she saw something in the water and called for her father. In the
water was a fully-clothed body with two logs across its back. The man called
police and when detectives arrived, they noticed the victim was wearing similar
clothes to what Rayna was wearing when she went missing.

The body was later identified as belonging
to Rayna Rison. The coroner performed an autopsy and ruled her death a
homicide. Rayna had no cuts or bruises, or anything of that nature and cause of
death was asphyxiation. Police were now investigating a murder.

Detectives got a tip saying they should look into Ray McCarty, who was married to Rayna’s oldest sister, Lori. When Rayna was 11 years old, Ray started molesting her and two years later, impregnated her. Rayna got an abortion and Ray was convicted of child molestation. He received a three-year suspended sentence in 1991. His probation ended on January 5, 1993, just two months before Rayna’s murder. Detectives interviewed him. Initially, he backed Lori’s statement that neither one of them had seen Rayna the evening she disappeared. However, when he was later alone with police he admitted to seeing Rayna the night she vanished.

Ray McCarthy. Credit: St. Joseph County Jail.

Around 5:40 p.m. on March 26, 1993, Ray was
looking for a house for sale on Warren Street, just around the block from the
animal hospital. A witness later confirmed he was there. Ray could see the
animal hospital from the house and saw Rayna’s car in the parking lot. So, he went there. Rayna
was sweeping or mopping in the foyer. He asked her if she knew where Lori was.
She responded that she did not, and Ray left.
He also told police he picked up a female hitchhiker that night and that
was the reason he did not initially tell police he spoke with Rayna. He said
Lori was still untrustworthy of him after he molested her sister.

While Ray was considered a person of
interest after this, there was no evidence linking him to Rayna’s murder. With
no other leads, it seemed the case was going cold.

But then a year and a half after Rayna’s murder, Indiana police pulled over a van driven by Larry Hall, and arrested him for attempted kidnapping. In his van, he had newspaper clippings of Rayna and a prescription bottle with the name R. Rison on it. Larry claimed he was the one who abducted and killed Rayna. However, police discovered he was in Kentucky when she vanished, and the prescription bottle was fake. Larry Hall was ruled out as a suspect in Rayna’s case but was later sentenced to life in prison for the murder of 15-year-old Jessica Roach of Georgetown, Illinois in 1993. Larry Hall may have killed 30 to 40 women, including the Springfield Three and Tammy Zywicki.

In 1998, detectives working the Rayna Rison
case took another look at the men in Rayna’s life. Matt Elser’s story never
changed and authorities believed he did not kill Rayna. Jason Tibbs’ alibi of
“fox hunting” was not a solid one because people playing the game were in their
own vehicles and never saw Tibbs. Then, there was Ray McCarty. Police got a
search warrant to search Ray’s property. They found blood in his car and two
handguns and a stun gun in his home. They arrested Ray and charged him with
murder in May 1998. While he was in jail, La Porte County elected a new
prosecutor, Robert Beckman, who decided there was not enough evidence to go to
trial. Detectives were never able to determine where the blood came from. Ray
was a hunter so it was possible it was animal blood in the car. Beckman dropped
the charges against Ray in August 1999, and the case was classified as a cold
case.

In March 2008, police reopened the case.
Ricky Hammons, who was 14 at the time of Rayna’s murder, contacted police
saying he had information relating to the case. At the time, he was in prison
on an unrelated murder charge. He told detectives he witnessed Jason Tibbs and
another man, Eric Freeman pull his sister’s car into the Hammons family pole
barn. Freeman was dating Ricky’s sister at the time. When Jason and Eric opened
the trunk, Ricky saw a body inside covered by a blanket with the face exposed.
He did not realize it was Rayna until after he saw her case on the news. He
told detectives he did not come forward in 1993 because he had been smoking
marijuana in the barn at the time and did not want to get in trouble.

Police interviewed Eric in 2008 and offered
him immunity in 2013 in exchange for his testimony. He told detectives he and
Jason went to the animal hospital around 6:00 p.m. as Rayna was leaving work.
Jason wanted to convince her to get back together. Rayna did not want any part
of that, and the two got into an argument. Jason hit Rayna, knocking her to the
ground. He then strangled her to death. Afterwards, he told Eric, “If I can’t have
her, nobody can.” The two men put
Rayna’s body in the trunk and drove to the pole barn, not realizing
Ricky was hiding inside. Then, Eric helped Jason dispose of Rayna’s body in a
pond along Range road.

In August 2013, police arrested Jason Tibbs, then 38 years old, and charged him with the murder of Rayna Rison. He was arraigned on Friday, August 23, 2013.

According to court documents, Jason was a person of interest early in the investigation after his ring was found in Rayna’s car. There also were letters from Jason to Rayna seized from her bedroom that stated he would “go to almost any extreme” to be her boyfriend again (Maddux 2013).

Trial began in October 2014 and ended just one month later. Throughout the short trial, the defense tried discrediting Ricky and Eric, and focused their attention on Ray McCarty as Rayna’s killer. At one time, Ray had threatened to kill Rayna if she reported their sexual relationship. However, the relationship was reported when she got pregnant and aborted the baby and listed Ray as the father. The jury did not believe the defense’s theory and found Jason Tibbs guilty of murder.

Jason Tibbs. Credit: WSBT.

In December 2014, Jason was sentenced to 40
years in prison. One year later, his lawyer tried to overturn the murder
conviction. However, in September 2016,
Indiana Supreme Court voted 4-1 to reject
Jason Tibbs’ requests that it set aside the Sept. 8 Court of Appeals decision
unanimously affirming his 2014 conviction and order a new trial (Carden
2016).

In February 2018, police arrested Ray McCarty in New Carlisle
on a preliminary charge of felony battery resulting in serious bodily injury.
On February 25, 2018, he committed suicide while in jail.

In September 2018, Jason Tibbs sought a new trial if his attorneys could convince the judge one was warranted. They claimed that fibers found on Rayna were consistent with the carpet in Ray McCarty’s vehicle. In addition, the attorneys believed Eric Freeman was coached in his statement to police. As of this writing, no decision on a new trial has been announced.

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Kate Black

1 year ago

I had never heard of this case, despite being a teen in Indiana at the time, thanks for the share. As for Rayna’s sister Lori, why on Earth would you stay married to a man who molested and impregnated your little sister? I would feel revulsed and go through with divorce proceedings ASAP. Also, I am glad to see Larry Hall was considered a possible suspect, although he was found not to be the perp; there are way too many missing and murdered women where I grew up and outside the state not to consider him. I remember my mom… Read more »

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Melissa Jaynes

1 year ago

Her sister should be absolutely ashamed of herself. To stay with a man who molested your CHILD sister. Great article. Nice to see some justice finally…